


Ghostbusters West Coast: Terminated

by VF15_Banshee



Series: Ghostbusters West Coast [2]
Category: Ghostbusters - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Ghostbusters International
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-04-07
Updated: 2012-06-30
Packaged: 2017-11-03 04:55:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/377517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VF15_Banshee/pseuds/VF15_Banshee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aidan Munroe joins up with the GBWC just in time for an election year! Why is a shape-shifter trying to kill Governor Schwarzenegger?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

October 31, 2006

 

_The ritual was almost complete. The influx of energies created on the night of All Hallow’s Eve had proven as effective as they had hoped. It was almost time and when they were done, no one would be able to stop them._

November 1, 2006

 

Aidan Munroe, 21, stood on the corner of Vista Del Mar Highland and Rosencranz avenues, staring up at the warehouse with the large neon orange logo on the front depicting a startled ghost inside of a no symbol. Aidan had been standing there staring at it for so long that people had begun to slow down as they passed him in the streets.

“Well,” he said to himself, “it has to be better than spending the rest of my academic career flipping burgers or selling star maps to tourists. Besides I’ve waited for a chance to do something like this my whole life.”

He stared at the building some more, mustering up the courage. The people on the street and in their cars grumbled about weird tourists.

“Ok Munroe suck it up, they won’t hire you if you’re all nervous and crap… and especially if they’ve noticed you standing out here staring at the building this whole time,” he muttered as he began to notice the weird looks the pedestrians were giving him.

Aidan squared up his shoulders, sucked in a deep breath and marched towards the building. He really should’ve looked across the street when he walked because he then nearly got run over by half-dozen cars.

“Ugh, this is not going to be good day for me,” he sighed, “C’mon Munroe, think positive.”

Opening the front door, he stepped into what was presumably the lobby. There was a large desk set up on the left, behind which sat a _very_ attractive blond woman… who was wearing a wedding band.

_Why are all the gorgeous ones always taken?_ Aidan thought to himself.

“Can I help you?” asked the woman.

Aidan stepped up to the desk and sucked in another large breath. All or nothing, do or die time.

“IwantajobhereatGhostbustersWestCoast,” he said in a huge rush. Aidan could feel his face turning red form embarrassment.

_Damn damn damn damn!_

“I’m sorry could you say that again?”

“I would like to apply for a job here at Ghostbusters West Coast.

The woman regarded him very carefully and then began to pull up some files on her computer. Aidan noticed for the first time that she was wearing one of those little plastic nametags that identified her as Chelsea Aberdeen Baugh.

_Aberdeen? Sounds Scottish or Irish. Mom would probably know._

“Well you seem to be enthusiastic enough, but I’m not sure. We already have a pretty full roster and our CEO, Dr. Baugh is out on a call right now. How about you tell me about yourself.

“Not much to tell. My name is Aidan Munroe. I’m a High School and college grad, I just moved here, I’m broke, I live in a crappy apartment, I watch too much TV. Look I could really use the job, I hate to sound like a fanboy but I’ve wanted to be a Ghostbuster ever since I was little. I’ll do anything you want. I’ll work for _free._ And how many people do you know who’d actually want to do something like this for free?”

Chelsea was about to reply when the familiar sound of a large garage door opening could be heard through the walls.

“Ah that would be Fritz and the gang. Would you like to meet them Mr. Munroe?”

“Sure,” he said, figuring that this would be a great time to make a better impression than he thought he had been making. Chelsea led him into the garage area of the converted warehouse where a converted white and neon orange SWAT van had just parked in front of a white Cadillac that looked almost exactly like the original Ghostbusters’ ECTO-1A. From out of the van tumbled a collection of the filthiest people Aidan had ever seen. There were six men and one woman. They were all dressed in identical dark blue jumpsuits with the now familiar neon orange striping, and all of them were dripping with foul smelling ectoplasm.

“Never again. I give up on this job,” moaned a blond-haired man who was wearing a slime encrusted ball cap.

“Hey Jen, do you think that little spud meant to do that to your…” began the man with glasses but the brown-haired woman cut him off.

“One more word outta you Hicks and you’ll be eating soft food for a month!”

A man with short black hair and another man with shoulder-length black hair and a goatee were supporting a third man with curly brown hair who seemed to not be able to put any weight on his left foot.

“Damn that little spud for messing with my prosthetic. I’ll probably have to send it to the techs at the hospital if I can’t fix it myself,” groaned the injured Ghostbuster.

“Welcome back guys. How did it go?” said Chelsea who replaced the Ghostbuster with the goatee in carrying the injured man.

“The little ones are always the worst,” replied the man whose jumpsuit nametag read STEVENS.

“We got ‘em all though,” replied the glasses-wearing man whose name was HICKS holding a bundle of three traps in each fist.

“Let’s get you upstairs Fritz,” said Chelsea as she helped Stevens support Fritz, “by the way, this is Mr. Aidan Munroe, he’s here to apply for a job.”

Stevens, Fritz, and the ball cap Ghostbuster, whose name apparently was HARNESS, looked at Chelsea, then at Aidan, then at each other.

“Beautiful. You’re hired,” said Fritz, “I’m Dr. Baugh, franchise CEO, this is Drs. Harness, Stevens, Chrismer, Ketchum, Thompson, and Mr. Jeremy Hicks.”

“It’ll be good to have a new rookie around,” said Dr. Harness, “While the nasties are busy eating you it’ll give the rest of us time to get away.”

“Welcome aboard,” said Jeremy as he handed Aidan the armfuls of traps and then made a beeline for the showers. In just a couple of seconds, Aidan was all alone in the garage with an armful of smoking ghost traps.

“Why do I get the feeling that I’m in for the ride of my life?” he asked himself.

 

-GBWC-

 

November 5, 2006

 

A week had passed since Aidan had been “hired.” Since then he’d had official interviews with Fritz, Kyle Stevens, and Andy Harness, been hired through the proper legal channels, had been given a tour of GB Central West, and been properly introduced to the various members of the GBWC team. He’d gotten on well with all of them except for one bad incident with Rachel Leavenworth, resident specter of GBCentral West. Aidan and Jeff Chrismer had been out on the shooting range practicing with the Proton Packs when Rachel glided through the door on her cleaning rounds. Aidan, who hadn’t met her before, startled by her appearance, turned the particle thrower on her and zapped her good. Her shriek of indignation promptly turned Aidan and Jeff’s hair white, and her anger left a puddle of slime on the floor, a strong smell of smoke and ashes throughout HQ and a slimy handprint on Aidan’s left cheek.

Later Rachel had stumbled upon him in the rec room watching movies and they had managed to reconcile the incident when they found out they both shared a passion for the Back to the Future trilogy. For the first week on the job, it had been one interesting week.

 

-GBWC-

 

The man strode down the street, utterly and completely naked, and didn’t care a damn about it. He walked with a confident, almost arrogant stride and kept his eyes firmly fixed ahead, not caring a whit for the people who passed him with open mouths or appreciative glances. He caused almost a dozen accidents as people in their cars did double takes at the sight of a naked man walking down the street. The man only stopped when a LAPD police cruiser pulled to a stop beside and an officer leaned out the window.

“Hey buddy you all right? Do you need help?”

The man paused and faced the officer. The cop felt a strange sensation looking into the man’s eyes, as if he was a piece of meat that was being assessed.

“No, I’m fine,” responded the man in an even, friendly voice. He smiled down at the officer, a smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

“Say, that’s a nice car.”

 

-GBWC-

 

Today was the final rally before the election and Governor Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger was ready for anything. Standing before the sea of news media Schwarzenegger waved briefly and then began his speech. Behind him, seated in neat rows on the raised dais that had been erected in front of the capitol building in Sacramento, Schwarzenegger’s aides and advisors, particularly his speech writer, sat and waited for the crowds reaction. All the months of campaigning had been leading up to this and one screw up, even after a great record in office, might spoil the whole thing.

In the crowd below a uniformed police officer moved through the onlookers and reporters with silent grace. Of average height, the officer had the look of one who might have been in the armed force at one time. He had short brown hair and a calm, dispassionate face. Once he was about twenty feet away from the podium, he calmly unholstered his sidearm, pointed it unerringly at the Governor and pulled the trigger.

 

“And so, people of California, I promise you that we will be able to look forward,” the governor was saying as he prepared to wrap up his speech when a voice to his right shouted, “Gun!” and he was tackled by one of his bodyguards, who promptly caught a faceful of bullets. Pandemonium broke out. People ran in every direction while police and dark suited security guards rushed towards the fake cop assassin with guns drawn.

“Freeze! Drop the weapon and put you hands in the air!” shouted one of the cops. The assassin looked to his left and right, assessing the threat, then calmly loaded his weapon.

“I said drop it!” bellowed the same cop. It was the last thing he said. With a speed that almost couldn’t be seen by the human eye, the assassin shot each of the cops, his arm seeming to bend at impossible angle as he shot around and behind him. Each cop drooped to the pavement, dead before they hit. With no emotion on his face whatsoever, the assassin reloaded his weapon and looked around for the governor. Schwarzenegger was being led to a waiting escape vehicle. The assassin started forward, firing as he went. More police followed him, empting their guns at the assassin. But even thought the bullets clearly hit him, the fake cop continued moving calmly forward, utterly ignoring the hail of lead that was being fired at him. The governor’s car’s tires screeched and the vehicle began to pull away. The assassin, out of bullets dropped his gun. Then, to the astonishment of all who saw it, the man’s arms flashed with a quicksilver gleam and elongated into a pair of swords. He began to run after the fleeing car, easily matching its speed. The assassin leapt onto the trunk of the car and smashed in the rear window with his sword arms. Then one of the bodyguards in the vehicle did something both very heroic and very foolish. He leapt out of the broken rear window, tackling the assassin. As the governor’s car sped away, the two men rolled to a stop. The assassin, not a single out of place item on his LAPD uniform and no injuries, promptly rose to his feet with liquid grace and relieved the hapless bodyguard of his head with a wet _snicker-snack._ The assassin gazed down the street the governor’s car had vanished, and then walked into a side alley. When police arrived the scene, they found no trace of the assassin except for a little bit of strange, sliver goop.

 

-GBWC-

 

The Ghostbusters received the call in the early evening.

“Saddle up guys and gal, the Governor of California calls for your aid,” said Rose Prevost as she handed Fritz the note she had written.

“Governor? Governor Arnold I’m going to pahmp you ahp Schwarzenegger?” asked Jeremy Hicks.

“Trying using that corny accent to his face Jeremy, and see what happens,” smirked Jeff.

 

-GBWC-

 

The Ecto-1N, the converted 1959 Cadillac Miller-Meteor that the New York Ghostbusters had made famous, arrived at the governor’s mansion with lights blazing and siren wailing and fit right in with the three dozen or so police vehicles outside.

“Boy is it cramped in there,” groaned Jeremy as he levered himself out of the car.

“Yeah, after the Ecto-WC, the 1N is kinda small,” commented Kyle Stevens. Aidan, brimming over with excitement for being on his first case, walked to the back of the Ecto to grab a proton pack. To his dismay, all the packs were gone. Instead a grinning Andy Harness handed him a pistol-shaped thrower attached to a small pack with a cylinder atop it that was worn on a belt.

“What’s this?” asked Aidan, eyeing the pistol with slight contempt.

“Proton Pistol system. You’re the rookie so you get the small gun since there’s only enough packs for us grown ups,” said Andy with a smirk.

The Mk. 3 Proton gun had been developed by Egon Spengler and Roland Jackson back in 1997 but had only seen very limited use by GBI franchises, even less so when the Mk. 4 Proton Pack had come out. The Mk. Three was worn on the belt, the power pack and core worn fanny pack style, with the pistol holstered on either side of the hips.

“Oh man,” Aidan grumbled as he buckled it on,” you saddled me with the girl gun.” Passing by the two men, Jennifer Thompson took the opportunity to smack Aidan in the head.

“What was that for?”

“For being a man,” she replied.

“Deal with it newbie,” said Andy.

 

-GBWC-

 

The Ghostbusters met with Governor Schwarzenegger in his office on the ground floor of his palatial mansion. The governor greeted them and then flipped on the big flatscreen. All the news channels were playing nothing but the story of the attempted assassination. Fritz looked up in confusion.

“Sir, we’re the Ghostbusters, this looks more like a job for the FBI or even the CIA. What did you call us for?” Schwarzenegger gestured and one of his aides, a pretty brunette handed a file to Fritz. He noticed, with a start, that the ID tag she was wearing had PENELOPE PECK.

Glancing through the file’s contents, Fritz and the Ghostbusters saw several photos of the assassin taken at the rally where he had tried to kill the governor.

“Hey!” shouted Jeremy, “I know that guy!”

“Everybody does,” added Aidan, “That’s Robert Patrick, the guy who played the T-1000 in _Terminator 2._ Heh, he’s even wearing the cop uniform too.”

Wordlessly Penelope handed them another photo of the same actor dressed in military fatigues. The difference here was that the man in the photo was at least twenty years older.

“Robbie was on the set of The Unit all day. The man who shot at me is not the same man,” said Schwarzenegger, “The police on scene fired more than a hundred rounds into him but he didn’t even twitch. Do you have any idea what that could be?”

In response, Fritz flipped on his PKE meter and began running over and around Schwarzenegger.

“Hmm. The PKE traces are faint but I can still get a reading. Guys I believe we are dealing with a Class V free roaming ectomorph.”

“What?” said Schwarzenegger.

“Shape shifter,” supplied Jeff.

“But why is it trying to kill me? I don’t remember pissing off any ghosts lately! This is… insane! And it’s only one day until the election! The press is already calling this a publicity stunt. Look, I don’t care what it takes but I want you to figure out what this thing is and…” the Governor was cut off as the light abruptly shut off, plunging the office into darkness. Heavy automatic gunfire immediately broke out in the direction of the front hall. Two plainclothes police officer rushed forward and slammed the door shut and braced with a chair. At that same moment the emergency lights came on. A section of the wall slid up to reveal a bank of CCTV monitors. The governor, his aides, the police, and the Ghostbusters looked the monitor in shock as they showed blue-gray images of the same man who resembled Robert Patrick, still dressed as an LAPD officer, march through the mansion, holding an M-16 in each hand, wielding them like pistols. Any person unlucky enough to get in the assassin’s way was coldly cut down. He kept walking, never slowing his pace, straight towards the office.

“Uh guys? Power on I think,” said Andy pulling out his proton thrower and thumbing the activation switch. With a familiar subsonic click and whine the Proton Pack revved up to power as the others armed theirs as well. Aidan felt very stupid standing next to them with only his Proton Pistol, like Will Smith in Men in Black.

The door flew open, rebounding off the wall and snapping off its hinges. The assassin stood in the doorway and leveled his weapons directly at Schwarzenegger.

“Fire!” shouted Fritz. Seven proton beams lanced out and knocked the assassin to the floor. The Ghostbusters gasped in horror as the assassin promptly got back to his feet. His chest was mess of crater wounds but instead of bloody flesh, silver metal glinted in the emergency lighting.

“Holy freakin’ crap,” breathed Aidan, “It really is the T-1000!”

The wounds on the T-1000 oozed closed. The liquid metal killer looked up at the Ghostbusters and silently wagged a finger at them as if they were disobedient children. Then it reached inside itself, it’s hands dipping into its chest like you would dip a finger into some cake batter. It pulled out a pair of Uzis and once again took aim at the governor. Only problem was that the Ghostbusters were in the way.

“No you don’t!” snarled Jeff, thrusting his hands out. The air between him and the T-1000 instantly dropped to sub-zero temperatures as ice crystals and frost billowed around the office. The T-1000 looked down at its arms in something akin to annoyance. Its arms had been frozen from the elbows down, the Uzis just useless lumps of metal and plastic. It began to stalk towards the Ghostbusters, obviously not caring that its guns were useless.

“Nuke it!” shouted Jennifer. The ‘Busters poured proton fire into the T-1000 driving clear back through the hallway. The T-1000, perhaps realizing it was at a tactical disadvantage, turned and fled.

 

-GBWC-

 

“Governor until we can figure out a way to contain this entity as safely as possible, I suggest that you, and any members of you’re immediate family stay at our headquarters in LA,” said Fritz. They were now standing in the ruined entrance hall of the governor’s mansion. Police and EMTs swarmed around taking statements and removing bodies. Schwarzenegger, still dazed by the impact of the attempted assassination by a fictional movie character, nodded mutely.

“Are sure we’re dealing with a spook and not. you know, the real thing?” asked Kyle, watching an EMT console the aide whose name was Penelope.

“The PKE meter doesn’t lie. Whatever that thing looks like, it’s still a shape shifter. A particularly malevolent one at that,” said Fritz, “We’ll have to be ready for anything.”

“I just got off the phone with Chelsea and Rose,” said Andy, snapping his cell phone shut, “They’ve called GBI to let them know what’s going on.

“Good. Kyle, Andy, drive the Ecto-1N around back,” said Fritz, “We shouldn’t let the media see that we’re leaving with Governor Schwarzenegger.”

“Sure thing Fritzy,” said Andy, flashing him a thumbs up, “C’mon rookie, let’s go.”

“Right behind you,” said Aidan, stepping out of the way of a pair of coroners wheeling a gurney with a body bag on it. Aidan paused for a moment, watching the scene of controlled chaos around him, the police lights outside reflecting off of the pools of blood on the floor.

“Man, Winston Zeddemore was right. This job _definitely_ aint worth eleven-five a year.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The shapeshifter that's taken to imitating the T-1000 has arrived at the GBWC's headquarters.

**_November 5, 2006_ **

**_10:04 PM_**            

 

            Fritz clicked off his cell phone and smiled across the Meeting Room table at the Governor.

“Good news sir. Your family have been put on a plane and are headed out to D.C. Authorities at the scene didn’t detect any signs of intrusion.”

“I’m glad to hear that but also a little disturbed. I guess that means he… IT really is after me?”

“It definitely seems that way,” replied the GBWC’s leader.

            The Ghostbusters were seated with the Governor at the big conference table in GB Central West’s Meeting Room on the ground floor. Currently at the table were Fritz, Andy, Kyle, Jeff, Will, Chelsea Baugh and Jennifer Thompson. Jeremy and Aidan were across the hall in the Computer Room.

“I still don’t understand why it would want to kill me, or take the form of a character from a movie I made nearly 25 years ago,”” said Schwarzenegger.

“We’ve encountered entities that have been motivated to kill people before,” replied Kyle Stevens, “On our first case actually.”

“Problem with this SOB is that he ain’t talking,” grumbled Jeff Nash, drumming his fingers lightly on the table.

“Well I think we can worry about its motivations later. Let’s just focus on trapping for now,” said Fritz.

“How are you going to do that?” asked Schwarzenegger.

“Jeremy Hicks and our new recruit are powering up the warehouse’s PKE detectors. They’re like our meters but they cover the entirety of GB Central West and a radius of 150 feet in all directions. The second it comes within range, we’ll know,” said Fritz.

“So it IS a ghost?” asked the Governor. Kyle pulled a Petri dish out his pocket and placed it in front of the Governor.

“As you can see, this is a sample that we recovered before we left your mansion. It may look like the mercury-ish mimetic polyalloy the T-1000 was supposed to be made out of in the movie, but really it’s just ordinary ectoplasm, albeit with a fairly unique signature,” Kyle said, holding the dish so that it caught the light from the ceiling fluorescents. The sample still glittered sliver but was now slightly transparent. The Governor shook his head ruefully.

“Mimetic polyalloy. If I had a dollar for every time that line got quoted to me…” he tailed off as Jeremy and Aidan came running in.

“Boss, we’ve got a problem,” said Aidan, slightly out of breath.

“What is it?” asked Fritz, a cold feeling beginning to congeal in his gut.

“It’s here,” said Jeremy grimly. Abruptly, all the lights went out.

 

Rose Prevost was out in the garage putting on her jumpsuit (just in case) when the power failed. Several things happened at once. She yelped in shock, glancing around even though the darkness made it impossible to see. An alarm blared forth from the room where the GBWC’s containment unit was kept. And lastly the emergency lights went on, bathing the garage in ghostly cones of light. Now that she could see again, Rose pulled the rest of her suit over her shoulders and rushed over to the heavy, reinforced door that led to the ECU. She threw it open to find, to her vast relief, that the backup generators had kicked in for the big machine. Problem was that the backups had a limited fuel supply; they’d have to find out what had gone wrong with the main power fairly soon.

“Everything all right in here Rose?” asked Otter Masterson as he came gamboling into the room as well.

“Everything seems fine but we’d better check just to make sure.” As Otter began to examine the generators, Rose unclipped her radio from her belt.

“Chelsea? Can you hear me?” There was a pause and then the radio crackled as Chelsea responded.

“We hear you Rose. Where are you?”

“I’m in the ECU room with Otter. The backup generators came on just fine and I don’t think there’s any problems.”

“Stay there for now but lock the door. We think that the T-1000 is already here.”

“Roger.”

Rose immediately strode over to the door pulled it closed and activated the locking mechanisms on the door. Somehow she didn’t feel much safer though.

“Now I wish I’d grabbed a pack…” she muttered.

 

Back in the meeting room, the Ghostbusters had been startled but otherwise remained calm.

“Jeremy, Aidan, where was it exactly when you spotted it?” asked Fritz.

“Right outside. Probably where it cut the power,” replied Jeremy.

“Alright, this is how we’ll do this,” said Fritz, “Chelsea, Aidan and I will take the Governor upstairs and guard him. The rest of you, check the PKEs and find that thing. Let’s move!”

Instantly the group began to move out, Jeff, Kyle, Jennifer and Jeremy headed out to the garage to get their equipment. Aidan, who already had his Proton Pistol belted on to his tan jumpsuit and Fritz who also had one, hustled the Governor over to the stairs. Chelsea briefly ran down the hall to grab the spare Proton Pack that Fritz kept stored in his office (one of those ‘just in case things’). She came back, hauling the thing in front of her as they hustled up the stairs. Once on the second floor, they entered one of the nearby bedrooms, the one usually reserved for those rare times that Peter Venkman was in LA. As Aidan made sure the door was locked, Fritz helped his wife put the bulky pack on.

“I somewhat wish you weren’t here for this. I don’t want you to get hurt,” he murmured in her ear,

“And let Rose have all the fun? Perish the thought,” she replied with a grin. Buckling the bottom strap around her waist, she turned around and gave Fritz a quick peck on the cheek.

“We’ll be fine. I know we will.”

Their moment was ruined when Aidan cleared his throat.

“Uh Boss, we should probably check on the others.”

Fritz scowled at the new guy but Chelsea just giggled slightly. Pulling the radio off his belt, he flicked it on.

“Jeremy, Kyle, how’s things downstairs?”

 

On the ground floor, the others had jogged over to the equipment lockers but when they opened them, most of them swore loudly. The Proton packs inside had had their connector hoses cut.

“You got to give him credit, he’s pretty thorough,” remarked Jeff as he pulled out a ghost trap that had been gouged into uselessness.

“Aw hell, now what? Where do we keep the spares?” growled Andy Harness.

“Back in Otter’s workshop and there should be a spare pack or two in the Ecto-WC,” said Kyle as he pulled out his PKE meter. Jeff immediately loped over to the converted SWAT van and tried to open the doors, but they refused.

“Hey Andy, you got the keys for this thing?” Jeff asked. Andy walked over, pulled his keys out and tried to unlock the back doors.

“What the hell? Why won’t they open?” he growled. He strode over to the front doors and tried to unlock them but they also refused to budge.

“I’ll be damned. This freak thought of everything! Guys! He jammed the doors on the Ecto-WC! Is there anything back in Otter’s place?”

Jeremy and Jennifer had been trying to get into Otter’s workshop but with as much success as Jeff and Andy.

“No! Damn, how long has this guy been in here?”

“Forget that! Anybody got a crowbar? As much as I hate to say it, I think we’re gonna have to bust one of the WC’s windows,” said Andy. It was just the when their radios crackled with Fritz’s inquiry.

“Yeah, Fritz we’re down in the garage but we’ve got a few problems. It seems the T-1000 must have followed us back here. He works fast; our packs and most of our equipment have been trashed and he’s damaged the locks on the Ecto-WC and Otter’s workshop. Uh, we’re starting to be up a creek without a paddle here…”

Jeff snorted. “Not if I can help it,” he said. He placed both of his hands on the rear windows of the Ecto-WC and concentrated. Frost curled around his hands and spread across the windows. After a moment he removed his hands and then rammed his elbow into one of the windows, which promptly broke into several pieces.

“So much for bullet-proof Lexan,” he smirked. He reached in and grasped the inside handle of the rear door and unlatched it. However the ‘Busters hopes were dashed as they climbed into the van, finding that the T-1000 had been thorough enough to trash the equipment that had been left inside it. Jeff gently picked up his beloved Proton Railgun, the barrel of which had been sheared off.

“Okay,” he said, fury etched into each word, “Now I’m pissed.

“Forget it for now Jeff, get over here and work your magic on Otter’s door,” said Jeremy, who had just ran over to the Ecto. For a moment Jeff looked like he was going to “work his magic” on Jeremy but then he and Andy hopped out of the van.

“Better hurry guys. I think we might have a major problem,” Kyle said as he examined his PKE meter, which was buzzing madly, its little arms waving frantically.

 

Inside the ECU room, Rose had begun to pace nervously as Otter fiddled around with the odds and ends of the Containment Unit. She was just about to ask Otter something when she heard a crackling sound and a yelp. She whirled around to see a man dressed in dark clothing toss Otter back from the Backup generators. The eccentric engineer crumpled to the floor unconscious… or dead. The man turned to face her and she felt herself go rigid in shock and fear. It looked exactly like the character from the film, right down to the police uniform.

_Funny, the boyfriend and I had just watched this movie last week._

She bolted for the door, knowing that she probably wouldn’t be able to unlock it before it got to her, but a very strong desire to get away from what looked like a killer robot from the future made her try anyway. Unfortunately for her, the T-1000 lunged forward with inhuman speed, grabbed her and flung her away from the door. She sprawled on the floor next to the wall desperately wishing that she had picked up a pack before now. Just as she sat up, she registered the sounds of footsteps and glanced to her left; the T-1000 was coming straight for her. It reached down, grabbing the scruff of her flightsuit with it’s left hand and hauled her up against the wall as if she weighed nothing at all, knocking the breath out of her, which was just as well because it then raised its right hand, it’s index finger elongating into a vicious spike. The T-1000’s hand shot forward and it buried its finger-spike right through the meaty part of Rose’s shoulder and into the concrete behind it. Rose let out a strangled gasp with what air she had left and then clenched her teeth against the pain. It was like nothing she’d ever felt before, the intensity of it causing her eyes to tear up.

“I want you to call the others,” demanded the T-1000 in that maddeningly calm voice of his. Rose just stared at the monster, gasping in pain. The others? Did it mean the rest of the Ghostbusters? But wasn’t it supposed to be after Governor Schwarzenegger? Her pause did not satisfy the T-1000, who twisted its finger spike, causing Rose to groan in pain.

“I know this hurts. Call for them. Now,” it said, perfectly motionless eyes boring into Rose’s own.

“I… I… won’t,” she stammered, the pain making it hard to even think, “You’ll just kill me if I do.”

The T-1000 let go of her flightsuit and pointed its other index finger at her forehead. It elongated into a silvery spike as well, stopping just between her eyes.

“I’ll kill you if you don’t,” it said, simply. The spike began to inch forward ever so slowly. Rose was begin to have a full-blown panic attack, her fear and the pain from her wound pushing her to do as the shapeshifter said but her loyalty to her friends warred against it. Fortunately she didn’t have to find out what she might let herself do. Just as the spike began pressing against her forehead, a voice said, “Excuse me.”

The T-1000 looked down and saw a most peculiar sight. The spectral head and shoulders of a young woman were poking through the floor. She smiled up him.

“Hello” she said brightly and then let loose with a piercing banshee-esque shriek. The effect was immediate. Though not human, the T-1000 recoiled as if it had been struck, thankfully pulling its spike out of Rose and allowing her to slide to the floor, groaning in pain, ears ringing and hair bleached white. This was one of the unfortunate side effects of incurring the displeasure of GBWC’s resident ghost, Rachel Leavenworth. Rachel floated over to where Rose was huddled against the wall.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Watch out!” cried Rose and Rachel whipped around to see the T-1000, it’s left arm now in the shape of a blade, swinging for her. Being a ghost, she didn’t think it would harm her but the T-1000’s blade, being an entity itself despite appearances, passed through her with a sound like a particularly bad static shock, causing Rachel to recoil. Rachel growled and the spectral dress she wore began to crumble with puffs of ethereal smoke, revealing a blackened skeleton underneath.

“Now you’ve really pissed me off! You come into my friend’s and my home, wreck it and then try to kill Rose?! You will PAY!!” Rachel shouted, flying forward and body-checking the shapeshifter. There was a flash and a blast of noise and heat. The T-1000 went flying into the wall, next to the door, now back in his amorphous liquid metal form. Rachel floated up from where she had been when she had generated that burst of fire. She looked even worse now, her dress gone below her midsection, revealing a smoking skeleton. The spectral skin and on her hands had also crumbled away, the bones of her hands curled claw-like.

“That was for Rose and Otter you shapeshifting freak,” she snarled. Suddenly, the door beeped and its heavy locks unbolted and the door swung open, allowing the rest of the team to scramble into the room. Jeff noticed the T-1000 first just as it elongated its hands into wicked-looking claws and lunged towards him. Jeff immediately whipped out his Neutrona Saber and swiped the T-1000’s claws clean off. The shapeshifter let out a metallic screech and then bolted for the opposite wall. Kyle, Andy and Will opened up with the two proton pistols and the one pack that they’d found after breaking into Otter’s workshop. The T-1000 was able to dodge the beams with liquid grace and dove into one of the air-conditioning grates.

“Oh no you don’t!” shouted Rachel, who swooped after the T-1000.

“Guys!” cam Rose’s strangled voice from where she was slumped against the wall, “Check Otter, that… thing hurt him pretty bad.”

“What about you?” asked Jeremy, noticing the streak of blood smeared on the wall, which ended at Rose’s shoulder.

Kyle, who had finished examining Otter, confirming that he was just knocked out, made his way over to Rose.

“I’m sorry we didn’t get in here sooner. The T-1000 has been quite thorough in hobbling us,” Kyle said apologetically as he lifted Rose hand away from where she was clutching at her wounded shoulder. Andy meanwhile was on the radio with Fritz.

“Otter and Rose are hurt pretty bad but nothing fatal fortunately. Rachel just chased it up the A/C ducts.”

“Roger that. Get Rose and Otter taken care of and then let’s track this thing down and trap it once and for all.”

“Copy that boss-man.”

Kyle had finished examining Rose’s wound and began to apply a bandage to it from the med pack he wore on his belt.

“I have wonderful news Rose. You’re going to live!” he joked. Rose let out half-groan, half-chuckle.

“No offense Dr. Stevens but I’m not in the mood.”

“You’ll feel better once we get you to the hospital.”

 

            On the 2nd Floor, Fritz pulled out his PKE, preparing to scan for the T-1000.

“We’re going to need a review of our security protocols after this. I’m actually somewhat appalled at how fast this thing has been able to disable us,” he said.

“Don’t worry boss, we’ll get it,” said Aidan. He’d been restless ever since the action had started, a part of him wanting to be downstairs with the rest of the team, mixing it up. But the more rational a part of him knew that the best way to help the more experienced Ghostbusters was to do as he was told. Watching the two Ghostbusters movies and the cartoon a whole bunch of times did not a real Ghostbuster make. Just then there was a splorching sort of sound, which drew everyone’s attention to the floor grate. Blue ectoplasm was bubbling up through it, causing Governor Schwarzenegger to back off with gasp. The ectoplasm coalesced into the form of Rachel, who looked both annoyed and apologetic.

“Sorry guys I lost him somewhere in the ducts,” she said.

“That’s ok Rachel, we’ll find it soon enough,” said Fritz as he adjusted his PKE Meter, which began to beep rapidly.

Chelsea, who noticed that the Governor was staring at Rachel in astonishment, took the opportunity to introduce GBWC’s resident specter.

“Governor Schwarzenegger, this is our resident Spirit Liaison, Rachel Leavenworth.”

“Um… hello,” he said, not exactly sure how to react.

“Don’t sweat it, most people have that reaction when they meet a real ghost,” replied Rachel.

“Wait a minute…” mumbled Fritz as he swept the PKE Meter across the room. It was then that Rachel lunged across the room, hands morphed into vicious claws, heading straight for Schwarzenegger’s throat. Aidan, shock and fear thrumming through him, whipped his Proton Pistol up and blasted the shapeshifter, letting out a strangled sort of yell that kind of sounded like “Yaarrgghh!”

The blast didn’t entirely stop the creature but it made it fall short of the Governor, who had thrown himself as far back as the small room would allow, its claws just raking the Governor’s suit. This did give Chelsea enough time to unlimber her thrower and she let loose with a full stream blast that drove the creature back. The T-1000, who had now morphed back into its liquid metal form, slowly rose to its feet and tried to walk against the power of the proton streams but Fritz added to the onslaught with his own pistol. The shapeshifter took another two steps and then stopped.

“Confinement streams!” shouted Fritz as he cut off his pistol. Aidan had to remember for a moment where the knob was for that on his gun, but he clicked and he and Chelsea were now holding the T-1000 in a cage of proton energy. Fritz slipped the ghost trap off of Chelsea’s pack and threw it at the feet of the captured T-1000. Fritz stomped on the trap’s pedal and it activated, a brilliant cone of light sucking the T-1000 down into its depths, a metallic screech from the shapeshifter accompanying it. The trap’s doors slammed shut and all was suddenly quiet… until the REAL Rachel splorched through the vent grate with a shout of “Where is he?!”

“Ah… we just caught him,” said Aidan a little shakily, pointing at the trap, which was smoking slightly and beeping.

“Oh. Damn, I missed it!” she said grumpily, then floated over to the trap, bending down so she was eye level with it. “How do you like dem apples?” she snarked.

“It’s over then?” asked Governor Schwarzenegger.

“Yes sir, the only way it’s getting out of that trap is sudden catastrophic failure. Which won’t be happening because it’s going straight into the containment unit,” said Fritz.

“Aidan, are you alright?” asked  Chelsea. She asked because he was currently bent over, breathing heavily.

“Yeah, just trying to… bleed off the adrenaline.”

“I think we all felt that way after we caught our first ghost,” said Fritz, a wistful smile on his face.

“In any case, I’d like to thank you all personally for saving my life, but didn’t one of the other Ghostbusters say someone was injured?” asked the Governor.

“Yes he did. Aidan, grab that trap and lets get downstairs to help the others,” said Fritz.

 

Though Rose and Otter had been hurt pretty badly and a lot of their equipment had been wrecked, there was a definite air of triumph. A car for the Governor soon arrived, along with a pair of ambulances and police squad cars and two bike cops.

Rose was loaded into one ambulance with Kyle Stevens riding along and Otter was loaded into the other but not before being thanked by the Governor for their efforts. He then turned to one of his aides.

“Where is Penelope? I’d thought she’d be here?” he asked.

“She had something of a panic attack after you left sir so we sent her home.” Nodding in understanding, the Governor turned to the Ghostbusters, who were lined up under the open doors to GB Central West’s garage. He then shook each of their hands in turn.

“I’d like you all to come by the Governor’s mansion in a couple of days after my family gets back. Re-elected or not, I want to thank you properly for saving my life.”

Down the line, Aidan was standing next to Jeremy Hicks and Will Ketcham, still holding the ghost trap with the T-1000 inside. He felt an almost surreal quality to what was happening. He knew that being a Ghostbuster would be a whole different ballgame but for a suburban kid there was still some of that child-like wonder at being part of this case involving, in this case, saving a State Governor.

_Wait until I tell everyone back home about this one!_

Across the street on the roof of one of the buildings opposite of the GBWC’s headquarters, a female figure dressed in black removed a hunting rifle from a black case at her feet. She swung the rifle over towards the building with the large neon orange no ghost sign and then cursed. Through the scope she had just barely caught a glimpse of the Governor’s head as it slipped into his specially protected limousine. Taking a shot now would do nothing… but there was something she could do. She aimed now at the Ghostbusters, at one in particular and pulled the trigger.

 

**To Be Concluded**

**In Part III**


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